CLEVELAND, Ohio – Inside most
people you'll find the heart of a child with an eternal love for toy trains and
model railroads.

Inside the International
Exposition Center this weekend, you will find thousands of examples.

More than 25,000 people are
expected to attend the two-day World's Greatest Hobby On Tour Train Show, which
continues Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults. Kids 15 and under are free.

The show travels to around a
half dozen cities every year, never hitting the same one on consecutive years.
It was last here in 2009.

Covering around 100,000
square feet at the I-X Center are over 70 booths representing major
manufacturers and vendors.

An overwhelming majority are
model-railroad related. Fittingly, Lionel was there with a healthy-sized
display of the company's wares.

The first toy electric train
is credited to one Joshua Lionel Cowen, said J. Don Reece, who was part of the
four-person team setting up and running the company's display.

Cowen had manufactured electric
fans in Brooklyn, N.Y., and 114 years ago took one of the motors and put it in a
small wooden railroad car. Reece said the company has made a dizzying variety
of toy trains since, halting production only during World War II when the
firm made navigational instruments for the U.S. Navy.

Reece said that it is untrue that Neil Young owns the company, but the musician does own stock, loves Lionel
trains and invented some sophisticated electronic control devices for the company.

There are about a dozen
operating model train layouts at the show, including an unbelievably large one assembled
by the Miami Valley Modular Railway club from the Dayton area.

It is in HO scale, that
means a real inch equals 87 scale inches.
A train traverses the layout by circumnavigating about 300 feet
of track, said club president Ken Allen. That equals about 4.87 miles, according
to the club's calculations.

Another layout worth seeing
is the Northern Ohio Garden Railway Society which operates large G-scale
trains. Some are powered by batteries and some are actual live steam, said club
member Allen Nickles.

One display that is
officially classified as an "operating model train layout" belongs to Larry
Williams of Athens, Ohio.

It is called Train on Time
and features sit-down hand-cranked rail cars that allow a person of any age to
propel himself or herself around a narrow-gauge layout inside a 40-by-50-foot
enclosure. Anyone who went to amusement parks between the late 1930s and the
1960s will remember them.

Gleeful toddlers kept the
cars in constant motion, Williams said today, though the oldest person
who has ridden his rails (not here today) was 92.

Then there were the
consumers, of every age and gender. Thousands of them.

Kristina McGhee, 6, of
Twinsburg, made the rounds with her dad, Van McGhee. She got her first train set
this Christmas, and said "I like them because they pick up people."

"Passenger trains," dad
interjected.

Ian Shelton, 11, of Columbus,
was hitting all the exhibits as well.

He and his dad have had an
HO-scale freight train for little over a year, and the youngster said his
favorite part of model railroading is "the decorations" -- meaning the building,
the foliage, and other infrastructures that bring a layout to life.

Ray Monhart of Medina is just
getting started in model railroading -- at the age of 62. He recalls a toy train
being in the house when he was growing up, but didn't really get active until
about 30 years ago when he bought a train then set it aside.

Now he's back at in earnest
and looks forward to building a layout "that's at least 20 by 10 (feet)," he
said.

Robert Rosati, owner of
Robbie's Hobbies in Columbus, said he goes to about 22 of these shows a year,
though about 60 percent of his retail business is out of the Columbus store.

He said the shows are not only good for model railroading but for all hobbies, because people who love one
have a certain affection for all of them.

Kurt Jablonski, a spokesman for the show, estimated that at least 15,000 people attended today.

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